Catherine Coleman

Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman (born December 14, 1960) is an American chemist, a former United States Air Force officer, and a current NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, and departed the International Space Station on May 23, 2011, as a crew member of Expedition 27 after logging 159 days in space.

Education

Coleman graduated from Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1978; in 1978–1979 she was an exchange student at Røyken upper secondary school in Norway with the AFS Intercultural Programs. She received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and a doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1991 as a member of the Air Force ROTC. She was a member of the intercollegiate crew and was a resident of Baker House.

Military career

After completing her regular education, Coleman joined the U.S. Air Force as a Second Lieutenant while continuing her graduate work for a PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1988 she entered active duty at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a research chemist. During her work she participated as a surface analysis consultant on the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility experiment. In 1991 she received her doctorate in polymer science and engineering. She retired from the Air Force in November 2009.